How to add a user? ADDUSER as root does not work!!!

#1 · 01-22-2003, 01:50 PM

I have tried to add a group and a user to my knoppix-box for FTP purposes, but I get only error-messages:
When I (as Root) type:
addgroup ftp
I get the following:

Adding group ftp (1001)...
rpcinfo: cann't contact portmapper: RPC: Remote System Error - Connection Refused
groupadd: unable to open shadow group file
addgroup: '/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 1001 ftp' returned error code 10. Aborting.
Cleaning up.

A similar message appears when trying to add a user.
What did I do wrong?

Knoppix 3.1 running from CD. Started up with boot-disk.
Network configured and working.

**AvidLinuxUser** · 01-22-2003, 02:09 PM

groupadd: unable to open shadow group file

Many of the files in etc can not be written to when running from the CD.

Check the status of the files by typing in a root console

Code:

ls -l /etc/gshadow
ls -l /etc/group

I don't think it has anything to do with the boot disk. But what is the problem that it can not boot from CD

**Hermanh** · 01-22-2003, 02:15 PM

Sorry, I noticed I was not logged in when I posted this.

I cannot start from CD-ROM because the BIOS won't let me. But that's not the problem (I think).

How can I change the status of those files? I am not exactly a gourou in Linux, you should know.

**Hermanh** · 01-22-2003, 02:53 PM

Code:

ls -l /etc/gshadow

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 jan 22 2003 gshadow -> KNOPPIX/etc/gshadow

Code:

ls -l /etc/group

-rw--r--r-- 1 root root 701 oct 9 18:45 group

Code:

ls -l /KNOPPIX/etc/gshadow

-rw--r----- 1 root root 501 aug 17 13:57 gshadow

So it is a question of how to get the rights to do that.

**Hermanh** · 01-22-2003, 03:53 PM

I did manage to solve this problem.

Removed the link gshadow in /etc.
Copied gshadow from /KNOPPIX/etc to /etc
changed permissions of /etc/group and of /etc/gshadow
in code:

Code:

cd /etc
rm gshadow
cp /KNOPPIX/etc/gshadow gshadow
chmod 766 group
chmod 766 gshadow

After this I could run addgroup and adduser.

Thanks.

**Hermanh** · 01-25-2003, 04:49 PM

I'm sorry,

I was a little to quick. When adding a user there are 3 messages that say

Code:

rpcinfo: cann't contact portmapper: RPC: Remote System Error - Connection Refused

After this a home-directory is created and so on.
The user is made and I can login, but I think still some things won't work.

I tried to turn my Knoppix-box into a ftp-server.
(see http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...362&highlight=)

Now I think the problems I have might be caused by the errors when making a new user.

Does someone has also this experience?
Knows someone how to avoid the error-message?

Thanks.

#7 · 01-27-2003, 05:18 PM

Although I still get the error-messages and would like to know what is happening, it's not urgent anymore. The problems with ftp are solved. It was not a problem of the way the user was made.